Demolition crews were out on Market Street on Tuesday at the old Baer Fabrics building.

It was a familiar sight to many people heading down Interstate 65 or along Market Street, but it had to come crashing down to make way for the new downtown crossing.

The century-old structure is now history, as workers for HCL Demolition dig into the facade.

The business closed in 2008.

One year later, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet purchased it for $2.2 million as plans for the Ohio River Bridges Project came together.

Now, the walls are finally coming down.

"It is in the path of the project," said Chuck Wolfe with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

The building is on Market Street, next to I-65, and in the right of way for the downtown portion of the Ohio River Bridges Project.

That calls for rebuilding the interstate south.

"It's never an easy thing to carry out a major infrastructure project in an urban area, something has to go. There's just not that much vacant ground," Wolfe said.

The structure was built in the early 20th century and over the years housed several retailers.

"I think the cabinet has been very sensitive to the significance of it," Wolfe said. "We've gone through quite an exercise of basically documenting that building and salvaging all the parts that are salvageable."

Wolfe said though the project has a lot of moving parts, it is on schedule.

The financing component is still being arranged and the cabinet is in the process of soliciting prospective contractors for the tolling operating.

"Come July, you will see the kind of activity people would ordinarily associate with heavy highway construction," Wolfe said.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet plans to have an open house in Louisville next month to talk about the summer construction work and answer questions.

The downtown portion of the bridges project is expected to be done in December 2016.

The Obama administration will unveil a major climate change plan Monday aimed at a large reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the nation's coal-burning power plants, a senior administration official told CNN.